Radio ads urge lawmakers to solve budget crunch without relying on salary cuts

Teachers, firefighters and police employees are using the radio airwaves to challenge Nevada’s business community to do more to plug gaping holes in state and local government budgets.

“The hope is that the other side of this issue will step up to the plate and assist in the big scheme of things,” Rusty McAllister, president of the Professional Firefighters of Nevada, said today.

Public employees in Nevada have frequently been castigated for having higher average salaries and more generous benefit packages than their counterparts in other states and in the private sector.

Many of those employee unions have accepted contract changes that reduce personnel costs, McAllister said, but that can’t be the only source of funds to fix the state’s deficit problem.

Chris Collins, executive director of the Police Protective Association, which represents Las Vegas police and city of Las Vegas marshals, made the same point.

“Nevada needs a broad-based business tax,” he said. “The chamber is focusing their efforts on the salaries and the pensions of public safety. We’re not the answer.”

The advertisement, which is airing on at least five stations in Southern Nevada, takes aim at “chamber of commerce big business types.” One of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce’s legislative goals is bringing public employee pay in line with private sector wages.

The ad also criticizes companies that took federal bailout money and proceeded to bestow bonuses on employees.

“It’s time our legislators stopped taking it from these banks and big businesses,” says the ad, which is sponsored by the Professional Firefighters of Nevada, the Nevada State Education Association and the Police Protective Association. “It’s time Nevada gave the banks and big businesses notice. They should pay what we all pay.”

Lawmakers have been looking at increasing some of Nevada’s taxes, including levies on cigarettes, liquor and mining, as well as the state’s modified business tax. Gov. Jim Gibbons has vowed to veto any tax increases.

Budget committees have also decided that teacher pay must be decreased by 4 percent, and that state workers must take 12 furlough days, which is equivalent to a 4.6 percent pay cut.

Elsewhere, local government workers, firefighters and law enforcement personnel are either negotiating contract changes or have accepted reductions. These range widely, from keeping vacant positions open, reducing overtime and cutting uniform costs to agreeing to smaller annual pay increases.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.